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He leveled tough words at China during the campaign. But as president, Barack Obama is hewing close to the playbook drafted by his predecessor when it comes to economic engagement with the Asian giant.

In April, Obama’s Treasury Department declined to name China a “currency manipulator,” using arguments similar to those advanced previously by the Bush administration.

In May, he named pro-business Republican — Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman — as his ambassador to China.

And Monday, Obama’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, begins two days of talks in China to lay the groundwork for the “U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue” — a revamped version of the “strategic economic dialogue” pioneered by George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

“There’s more continuity than discontinuity,” says Nicholas Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

As a candidate, Obama told union members in Pennsylvania in April 2008 that China wasn’t playing by international trade rules and was “grossly undervaluing their currency and giving their goods yet another unfair advantage.”

“Each year they’ve had the chance, the Bush administration has failed to do anything about this. That’s unacceptable,” Obama said, touting his support for a bill to crack down on China.

But the precarious state of the global economy provides a compelling reason for the administration to tread carefully in its relations with China, observers note. So do North Korea’s recent nuclear and missile tests.

“The idea is going to be to make nice to China but at the same time try to increase our pressure on them, gentle as it may be, to take more forceful measures to help deter North Korea from doing what it’s been doing,” said Richard Baum, director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies. “Obama’s not going to do anything to rock the boat on U.S.-China relations.”

The economic crisis threw into stark relief the United States’ dependence on China to finance its debt as the government racked up higher deficits in order to stimulate the economy and prop up foundering financial institutions.

“Now more than ever, the two economies need each other,” said one observer from the business community. “The administration recognizes they need to maintain the right posture.”

And with markets already skittish, signs of significant tension between the two countries would have dire consequences for the global economy, said Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers.

“Everybody’s looking at United States and China as really being the two principal players on the global economic scene. So if they start shouting at each other, this is bad for financial markets right now,” he said. “You’ve just got to be careful. It doesn’t mean you change your objectives.”

Yet Obama’s “no drama” China policy, as one analyst dubbed it, could lead to growing tensions with some lawmakers and activists if recent rumblings against China’s trade practices continue to mount.

“For them to back off [the currency issue] is extremely disappointing, given that this really is the core of a structural change that needs to occur in our economy,” said Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group of agriculture and manufacturing interests that advocates on trade issues.

The financial meltdown muted the China angst that swelled during the 109th Congress, but the rumblings about the country’s trade practices are beginning to re-emerge on the Hill.

A bipartisan group of House and Senate members recently reintroduced legislation aiming to force China to increase the value of its currency — although the legislation as of yet does not have the high-profile co-sponsors it did in 2007 and 2008.

In May, he named pro-business Republican — Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman — as his ambassador to China.

finally someone able to do the job and it is not a surprise. ! UNtil now the more serious moves of B Obama have been quite in line with GWB's. After all it is not with clowns like Hillary Clinton or Tim Geither that the US government can expect serious business in China. Said clowns may impress other clown-led government like the UK, France or even Brazil but never China.

both Giethner and Clinton are more conciliatory and they know why, especially Hillary, The Snake with a Perm. Hey that would do a nice TV series : "the snake with a perm in the dragon's empire "

Nothing proves more than this issue that the that majority of people affilliated with Republican & Democrat parties vote on social idealogy and nothing else. These bailouts were bad when Bush started it & they are bad now. The funny thin is seeing republicans who supported Bush when he was doing it but completely 100% changed their mind when Obama did it. And in reverse, the Democrats who hated when Bush did it but think Obama is a geneus.

We need a social liberal who is a financial conservative in the white house.

Not surprising. There's a lot of continuity in US foreign policy, when all is said and done. So far, not much in Obama's foreign policy looks very distinctive at all. His policies in Korea, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan, NATO, etc, etc are mostly the same as Bush Junior's.

As a historian, I would expect this. In US foreign policy, many things just stay constant and are passed on from one administration to the other, decade after decade, such as NATO and the US alliance with South Korea. Those are not likely to change much, which is why most of foreign policy is really not all that interesting.

We shall see if there is such a thing as an Obama foreign policy at all, but right now there doesn't seem to be. Maybe he should say he's more interested in social and economic development, and wants to reform the IMF, World Bank and other global institutions to make them more relevant to the global system of the 21st Century, and things like that.

Then again, it is just fine if he is mostly a domestic policy president, since we have more severe economic problems than normal.

Thank you for pointing this out, I truly believe that if we dump the whole party system we will have much better representation. It seems that all we ever hear about are the Religous nut-jobs and those who think they are more intelligent and informed than they really are.

Same as Bush...except that China respected Bush but they view Obama as an unstable and relatively clueless little boy as evidenced by their worry over whether the US is going to stiff them out of the money we owe them and their reluctance to buy our long term debt in favor of short term bonds. It appears that China just doesn't trust Dumbo very much....Chinese are smart.

Once Obama got into office and up to speed he realized that he couldn't do too much different from what Bush was already doing. Of course Obama and his team of slimey democrats continue to blame Bush and the republicans for the economy going sour. The republicans should remind the world that things didn't start looking bad until the democrats took over everything almost three years ago. The China Plan, the North Korea Plan, the Iraq Plan, the Iran Plan, the Alfghanistan Plan, the Israel Plan, the Turkey Plan, the Russia/whoops, soon to again be the Soviet Union Plan, etc. You get the drift. Let us all go back into the archives and dust off all of the old Bush plans and use them again now that everyone's hope for change, and for use of dialogue doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere.

Once Obama got into office and up to speed he realized that he couldn't do too much different from what Bush was already doing. Of course Obama and his team of slimey democrats continue to blame Bush and the republicans for the economy going sour. The republicans should remind the world that things didn't start looking bad until the democrats took over everything almost three years ago. The China Plan, the North Korea Plan, the Iraq Plan, the Iran Plan, the Alfghanistan Plan, the Israel Plan, the Turkey Plan, the Russia/whoops, soon to again be the Soviet Union Plan, etc. You get the drift. Let us all go back into the archives and dust off all of the old Bush plans and use them again now that everyone's hope for change, and for use of dialogue doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere.

Where is the uproar from Labor and this administration over GM proposals to import autos from china in the near future?

Why doesn`t Labor admit that Illegal Immigration from the south and "Serf Labor" from china, has depressed wages for the average American citizen?

It`s not only foreign policy that the Obama administation is copying from the last one. All of the lies out of Obama`s mouth concerning trade issues that Dems espoused during last year`s election have fallen by the wayside too.

The last two Dem presidents (Clinton,Obama) have given lip service to the average American Worker.

We expect this from Repubs and they have been castigated by the left and the media.But, as usual, this administration will get a pass on this and almost every other issue.

Dem voters need to pressure Obama to start standing up for His perceived ideals that got him elected and get over Bush`s inept administration.Otherwise his claim to fame will be "I was the first black president ,not counting Bill Clinton"!

In May, he named pro-business Republican — Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman — as his ambassador to China.

finally someone able to do the job and it is not a surprise. ! UNtil now the more serious moves of B Obama have been quite in line with GWB's. After all it is not with clowns like Hillary Clinton or Tim Geither that the US government can expect serious business in China. Said clowns may impress other clown-led government like the UK, France or even Brazil but never China.

both Giethner and Clinton are more conciliatory and they know why, especially Hillary, The Snake with a Perm. Hey that would do a nice TV series : "the snake with a perm in the dragon's empire "